‘Don’t hold yourself back:’ Bladen County woman shares journey to success in show business despite hardships

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — From Bladenboro to the big city, a 22-year-old blazes her own trail to success but it did not come without hardship.

Alayna Hester was a passionate gymnast and cheerleader at East Bladen High School until she was 15 years old.

“My chest caved in on itself. It’s a condition called pectus excavatum,” Hester said. “It was sort of crushing my organs underneath it so I had to have these big metal bars put through my ribs to essentially stretch my sternum to keep it away from my organs.”

No longer able to participate in sports, Hester felt discouraged but didn’t let it defeat her.

“At first it felt like it stopped me from…from everything that I had going for me, basically,” Hester said. “I was tired of feeling just like the victim of a tragedy. I was just like, I have to do something with my life.”

She started taking acting classes at Actors Arsenal in Wilmington. She landed a role in Tell Me Your Secrets on Amazon Prime. In her second gig ever at 19 years old, she was working alongside Michael Keaton in Dopesick, a miniseries about the opioid crisis.

Hester says it felt like her life and career changed very quickly.

“They could have very easily hired a big name for the role that I did but they took a chance on me. And our showrunner Danny Strong created such a safe and really powerful environment,” Hester said. “It was very much a passion project for everyone involved and I’m just very blessed that I was able to work on that.”

Her hardship was far from over. Hester dealt with lots of pain and other health issues while filming. Three weeks after the project wrapped, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at 19 years old.

“I sort of didn’t believe the diagnosis at first because, after everything I went through when I was 15, I was like there’s no way that anything else that bad could ever happen to me again,” Hester said. “I thought I was done, I thought I was immune, and so it was a lot.”

After dealing with medical treatment on top of the anger and sadness that came along with the diagnosis, she was cancer free three days before the premiere of Dopesick.

Her success continues and she’s landed a recurring role on Law and Order. The show is currently on hiatus.

Hester’s creativity continues to bloom as she is now working on recording music. She says she has written songs since she was young but started working on them seriously as she used writing as an outlet through her cancer diagnosis.

Fortunately, her busy schedule has allowed her time to visit home and remember where it all started.

“It keeps me grounded. It keeps me remembering the people that helped me get to where I am and the community that supported me through some of the worst days of my life is now celebrating the victories with me.”

While living out her big-city dreams, she holds her small-town roots close. Hester encourages people to follow their dreams and shoot for the stars.

“Don’t hold yourself back from anything for fear of what other people will think because I would have never ended up here if I would have cared what everybody else said,” she said.

Hester anticipates releasing her first single in the coming months. She wrote it on her one year cancer-free anniversary reflecting on what her loved ones dealt with while she was sick.